Daniel L. Smith

Poet, teacher of meditation, and publisher, Smith is a retired bee keeper-woodworker-counselor living on the St. Francois Range of the Missouri Ozarks. Writing 60+ years, Contributor in Poetry at Bread Loaf back in the 70's, Dan taught writing/ literature at university, developed award winning technical writing/ illustration in business, and retired from his own wood working, boat building, and antique restoration business. For the next 30 years, folks described him as a contemplative psychotherapist, a teacher of meditation as well as written communications, and by some, an accomplished cross-cultural healer, a title he modestly declines.

Smith also taught mindfulness, grief, addiction, and shamanic therapeutic interventions to other professionals. Despite his academic preparation / teaching experiences, he is a life-long devotee of Celtic Shamanism. Raised Lutheran in Appalachia, in 2017 he ordained under Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Tradition of Engaged Buddhism, the Order of Interbeing.

Since 2014, Smith has published ten collections of poetry, three volumes fiction/non-fiction, and one cookbook.